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Posted by HelloReality on November 05, 1999 at 15:01:31:
In Reply to: Re: Re: well I'll tell ya what post-modernism is... posted by J. Delaney on September 15, 1999 at 03:37:05:
I am not well educated on postmodernism, and I am trying to understand what it is all about. One thing I am uncomfortable with is that Plato is so often cited as the "essence" of Western Philosphy (funny!). Clearly Plato was one of the first voices in a long and multitextured conversation, and clearly many Western philosophers (and religious thinkers) have not been able to escape from Plato (and Aristotle's) shadow. But! "Western Philosophy" has also worked to erode Plato's idealism...there is no monolithic Western Culture, acting in unison. There is a healthy exploration of skepticism, and a flowering of doubt in Western thinking (ex. Hume and Kant). To speak of Western Culture, as if it were a singular, united body is misleading, it encompes many cultures, and the influence of thought from these many cultures (Germanic, Slavic, Hellenic, etc. etc.). So, in my preliminary readings of postmodern writers, its seems that there is a tendency to construct a narrative in which the abstract "West" represents everything undesirable, stiff, and unforgiving. Socially, it seems that this construction is the plaything of the upper middle cl, looking for some sort of vengeance on all the ignorant, homophobic football coach types that discriminated against them because of their creativity and sensitive intellects. A sort of spiritual attack, a masterfully creative play with language. Of course there is more to the phenomena, Im just throwing out an idea for discussion and criticism. I would welcome any criticism of this text. Another thought: sometimes skepticism and doubt, when taken to an extreme begins to undermine itself. How do we know that the premises (or non-premises) of postmodernism are true? or not true? There is a Zen saying "the opposite of something also has an opposite". Some people only take the doubt so far, then stop, just short of their own premises. But let the thing eat itself up! Let the doubt creep into the idea that your critical technique is without premises. That would yield some interesting conclusions!! Consider the line in the text below "the rigorous time-sense of the West tends to be incredibly constricting to the mind.." What is this word "mind"? in the West we have this idea that there is such a thing as "mind", but....you get the picture..:)Educate me, friends.
: I tend to think that in the realm of postmodernism, religion in general is irrelevant. Postmodernism deals with the ability of mankind to find absolute truth within the realm he explores on a daily basis, be it perceptually or intellectually. Any attempt to throw religion in umes that there is some kind of "soul" that would know objective truth. That umption aside, however, postmodernism becomes a very effective thought mode, insomuchas it forces one to continually question all that he is confronted with. Although it may be ineffective as a true life philosophy, exploration of postmodernism and deconstructionism can be a sufficient drive to push the philosophical limits that western philosophers such as Plato have placed upon us. The rigorous time-sense of the west tends to be incredibly constricting to the mind, and the doubt inherent in postmodernism tends to preclude all walls. The rule isn't "there are no absolute truths"...it's "maybe there are no absolute truths," and I tend to believe that that's an important question that western philosophy tends to just pave over. It's something that should be considered. It's not atheism or agnosticism, it's an exploratory yearning for knowledge that can never be sufficiently fed. And it's good for humanity.